1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to electronic monitoring systems, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for measuring and validating social human interactions and communications, using computer and navigational technologies to remotely monitor group dynamics.
2. Description of Related Art
Social interaction and communication have always been important topics for study in the continuing pursuit of improving human existence. As technology evolves, it becomes increasingly important to understand how social intercourse is affected. New technologies not only add new stressors to human interaction, but further affect the quality and nature of these interactions as humans adjust their behaviors patterns to integrate technological advances.
Accordingly, the ability to monitor and measure human interaction and communication is quickly being recognized and promoted as an essential element of businesses, careers, and personal lives. Existing methods do not, however, provide an effective solution for such monitoring needs. Conventional monitoring systems are limited to those that provide details regarding an individual's separate existence, e.g., medical telemetry data, and do not relate to interactions with others. Navigational aids, such as those based on the global positioning system (GPS) or similar reckoning devices, can be used to track the movements of a vehicle or an individual, but do not yield any useful information regarding the individual's surroundings, other than that which can be inferred from the purely geographic information.
The following scenarios illustrate some simple examples wherein measurement tools might benefit various classes of individuals. A first example relates to polling validation. If an article in a periodical suggests that a primary factor in the breakdown of family values is that fathers do not spend enough time with their children then, to substantiate the claim, a poll may be taken, revealing that fathers spend only a certain amount of time each day with their children. A mechanism is needed to validate these findings, but none exists. To continue the foregoing example, a family counselor might want to know the actual amount of time a specific father spends with his children. Again, no reliable automated method exists for making such an accurate determination.
In another example, an employee may make a claim, during an employee evaluation, that she has been compelled to spend 50% of her time personally mentoring and counselling junior employees. The employee's manager needs a method to validate this claim, but no such method is available. A broader example relates to a psychologist's desire to determine a patient's source of stress. Due to busy lifestyles, the patient may be unable to isolate which social interaction is the cause of undue (serious) stress. There is, however, no conventional apparatus or technique that can be used to carry out this analysis (other than the very tedious and time-consuming approach of having someone review a series of video or audio recordings taken of the subject).
In light of the foregoing, it would be desirable to provide a method of monitoring an individual's interaction with the environment, such as by detecting or analyzing conversations. It would be further advantageous if the method were adapted to analyze interactions in a crowded, complex, and realistic environment, where it becomes more difficult to establish the identity of the intended recipient of any communication.